Graphical Integrity.
Visuals are proportional to data. Lie factor 1.0 is honest.
The visual representation of numbers must be directly proportional to the quantities represented. Tufte's Lie Factor measures this: the size of the effect shown in the graphic divided by the size of the effect in the data. A lie factor of 1.0 is honest. Anything else distorts.
Edward Tufte, 1983 · The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Charts that apply this principle
Butterfly Chart
Back-to-back horizontal bars for any two-sided comparison, with the category labels in the center gutter.
Diverging Bar Chart
Bars extend left and right from a central baseline to show positive and negative values.
Population Pyramid
Back-to-back horizontal bars showing age distribution by gender.
Bump Chart
Displays how the ranking of items changes over time using curved or straight lines that shift vertically to reflect position changes.
Parallel Coordinates
Plots multivariate data with one vertical axis per variable, connecting each observation's values with a polyline across all axes.
Metric Comparison Card
Side-by-side display of multiple KPIs with current vs previous values and change indicators.
Waterfall Chart
Shows how an initial value is affected by sequential positive and negative changes.
Gantt Chart
Horizontal bars on a time axis showing task durations, dependencies, and overlap.